Category Archives: food

Roasted vegetable and cauliflower cheese tart

Posted in food, gluten free, healthy eating, Uncategorized, vegetables by

Preheat oven to 200c / gas 6. Prepare a 20cm loose bottom tin.

Ingredients:

Shortcrust pastry:

80 g rice flour, 140 g buckwheat or chestnut flour, 70 g ground almonds, 2 pinches of salt, 2 tsps ground linseed, 1/4 tsp xanthum gum, 100 g salted butter – chilled and diced, 2 eggs 3-4 tbsps cold water.

Method:

Mix all dry ingredients, rub in the butter with your fingertips until  it resembles  coarse breadcrumbs.

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Stir in the beaten egg with a fork. Add small amounts of water as you toss the crumbs together. Continue until dough is formed. I find that a gluten free dough takes up more water than a wheat dough and is quite a sticky dough.Knead briefly to bring to a ball. Wrap

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in parchment and chill for at least an hour.

Roll out and place in the flan tin. Prick the base with a fork ( I trim of the excess pastry after cooking to allow for shrinkage).Line pastry with parchment and baking beans.  Bake blind for 10 – 15 mins.

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Filling

Ingredients:

Carrots, peppers, parsnips and sweet potatoes prepared and roasted in olive oil

Halved mushrooms  – sauteed

1 onion sliced in to rings – sauteed

Tomato sauce: chopped tomatoes, 1tsp of chilli, handful of chopped basil leaves and small carton of passata – simmered to reduce the water content

Cauliflower -cooked

Cheese sauce

Basil leaves

Assembly:

1. Lay roasted veg around the cooked cauliflower
2. Spoon the tomato sauce over the veg and arrange mushrooms, onions and basil on top
3. Drizzle cheese sauce over the cauliflower

Finally put back in oven to heat through – 15-20 minutes (moderate temperature).

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Fruit cake

Posted in cake, food, Uncategorized by

Prepare a 2lb / 900 g loaf tin

Preheat the oven to 150c / Gas 2

Ingredients:

225 g gluten free self-raising flour

175 g butter

160 g muscavado sugar

4 eggs ( 3 if non gf flour)

275 g mixed fruit

rind of lemon

1 tbsp milk if needed

Method:

Place all ingredients together in a bowl and mix thoroughly until well blended.

Turn in to the prepared tin and smooth the top. Bake in the oven for about 2 hours or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool before turning out.

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Meat…or not?

Posted in food, healthy eating, Uncategorized by

I have been contemplating for a while to try a meat free diet. Not just on a whim, more of an experiment to see the impact on my health. I have always thoroughly enjoyed meat dishes and do wonder how I will find this new diet approach. One thing I am very much aware of is that over the last couple of weeks I have felt my digestion processes to be much more sluggish (not wanting to be too graphic!) and over the last few weeks I have eaten more meat than I usually would. Is this related I wonder?

There are such a lot of conflicting views out there with everyone having strong opinions –  some say to help us live longer then all animal products should be avoided; some state that red meat is harmful whilst others say as omnivores we are designed to eat meat and should.

For me, I want to feel healthier. Actions I have taken so far – being gf and eating miminum fructose have made me feel better.. and so for the next 4 weeks (miminum) this is the additional change I will try.

Here goes…

 

Lemon drizzle cake

Posted in cake, food, Uncategorized by

Preheat oven to 180c / gas 4

Prepare a 20cm square tin

Ingredients:

175 g gluten free self-raising flour

175 g butter

160 g demerara sugar

4 eggs (3 if not using gf flour)

Rind of 1 lemon

1 1/2 tsps gf baking powder

Topping – juice of the lemon and 150g sugar

Method:

Put all the ingredients for the cake in to a bowl and mix well until smooth.

Turn mixture in to prepared tin.

Bake for about 35 mins – until skewer is clean.

Whilst the cake is still hot spoon the lemon/sugar mixture all over the top of the cake. Once cool remove the cake from the tin.

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Granola

Posted in food, healthy eating, superfood, Uncategorized by

Ingredients:

Rolled oats – 2 cupfuls

1/2 cup each of cashew nuts, pistachio nuts, flaxseed, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds

Coconut oil – sufficient to lightly coat all the dry ingredients

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Spread out on a baking tray and roast in a hot oven for 10 minutes or until the nuts turn golden brown

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Allow to cool and store in an airtight jar. If it lasts this long, will stay fresh for a couple of weeks!  Enjoy playing with different combinations.

 

Apple and cinnamon cake

Posted in cake, food by

Ingredients:

170g gluten free self raising flour

150g dark muscovado sugar

170g butter

4 eggs

1tsp baking powder

2tsps ground cinnamon

2 cooking apples peeled, cored and chopped in to slices

Method:

Put all ingredients ( except apple) in to a bowl and mix. Once all blended stir in the apple slices.

Line a 20cm square tin and tip mix in.

Bake in the centre of the oven 180c / gas 4 for about 30 minutes 120416

Not quite Dauphinoise potatoes

Posted in food by

Serves 4 as a side dish

Ingredients:

5 large white potatoes – peeled and thinly sliced

2 onions – 1 red and 1 white  – thinly sliced rings

2 cloves of garlic finely chopped

butter

mixed herbs and pepper

400ml whole milk

Method:

Put a layer of onions and then potatoes in to an oven proof dish. Sprinkle with herbs and pepper and garlic. Repeat. On the final layer of potatoes place a small piece of butter across each potato. Pour the milk on.

Place in a moderate/hot oven (180-190) until cooked through and crisp on top (45- 60 mins)

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You don’t eat sugar!?

Posted in food by

This what I was asked the other day.

My response was that I ensure I consume a minimum amount of fructose a day.

‘What…you don’t eat fruit? But fruit is good for you!’ was the immediate response..and a look of horror.

This got me thinking…

When I was child we had an apple a day (to keep the doctor away), we never ate bananas, had satsumas at Christmas time, grapes only when we were poorly and all other fruits were eaten seasonally – to go fruit picking was a family day out. And, as for dried fruit – in a wedding, Christening or Christmas cake or given as a present in the form of crystallized fruits at Christmas.

When did we start to eat so much fruit?

It is wonderful to be able to nip to a supermarket and see a plethora of fruit types from the usual to the exotic. But does this mean we should increase our intake?

I decided to cut back on sugar when I was informed of the different ways in which glucose and fructose are metabolised and the effects on the body. My understanding is ( I am not a doctor so I do not claim to be correct) every cell in the body can use glucose but the liver is the only organ that can metabolize fructose in significant amounts. When we eat a diet high in fructose the liver gets overloaded and starts turning fructose in to fat.

When I decided to ‘quit’ sugar for several weeks to let my body recalibrate the only sweet foods I ate regularly were medjool dates, dried apricots and a daily square of 85% plain chocolate. At the end of the first week I would have fought someone for a sugar fix! I was astounded. Seemingly even the small amount I ate was causing an ‘addiction’.

Again, I was informed that sugar, in the same way as cocaine, lights up the ‘pleasure centre’ in the brain which floods the body with dopamine – the feel good hormone. As this wears off another fix is needed. When we eat foods containing sugar often and in large amounts, the dopamine receptors start to down regulate so the next time we eat these foods, their effect is lessened so we need more to get the same level of ‘fix’. ie the sugar hijacks the brain chemistry to make us crave more and eat more.

Of course I intake sugars daily from milk in the form of lactose and from the vegetables I eat – but actively avoid other sources. When I occasionally eat some berries I really enjoy them but I ensure that I don’t eat them everyday. Do I feel better for this? Absolutely.

 

Roasted sprouts and butternut squash salad

Posted in food, vegetables by

Ingredients:

Sprouts – peeled

Butternut squash – deseeded and chopped into chunks

2 tsps Cayenne pepper

Olive oil

Green salad leaves – rocket, watercress, spinach

Pomegranate seeds

Avocado

Method:

Toss the sprouts and butternut squash chunks in olive oil and cayenne pepper. Bake in hot oven until roasted.

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Prepare the other ingredients and add the roasted vegetables.

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Baked avocado and feta cheese salad

Posted in food, healthy eating, salad, superfood by

I find avocado so versatile.This salad is so easy to prepare.

Ingredients: avocado, eggs, green leaves – rocket, watercress, spinach etc, and salad vegetables of your choice and feta cheese.

Method:

Cut an avocado in half and remove the stone. Crack an egg into each half – I used quail eggs. Pop  in the oven to bake until the egg is the desired consistency. Prepare the salad base and top with the baked avocado/egg.

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Watercress, tomatoes, pomegranate seeds and feta cheese was the base salad here